Research

Guiding Principles

The Dystonia Medical Research Foundation (DMRF) prides itself on a long history of supporting and stimulating dystonia research. Always the primary goal of the DMRF, research has led to a better understanding of dystonia as well as to breakthroughs in genetics and therapeutics.The funding investigators obtain from the DMRF through grants and fellowships serves as "seed money" before generating greater funding from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health. Beyond the funding of investigators, the scientific program of the DMRF is multi-faceted, encompassing contracts with pharma/biotech companies on targeted projects, scientific meetings and workshops, a clinical fellowship program, brain bank collective, international medical symposiums, and an integral role in theDystonia Coalition, all to further the understanding of dystonia.

The Medical and Scientific Advisory Council (MSAC) is comprised of pre-eminent researchers and clinicians from various scientific disciplines. The members are responsible not only for grant review but also for setting the direction of the research to find more effective treatments and ultimately a cure.

In the video below, showing a presentation to the DMRF Board of Directors, dystonia expert and research pioneer Stanley Fahn, MD explains how dystonia came to be recognized by the medical community, with special emphasis on how doctors stopped classifying dystonia as an untreatable, “hysterical” condition and evolved to the modern understanding of dystonia as a complex, organic, neurological syndrome.